Low solar activity continues. There were no sunspots seen fromJanuary 20-29, and the sunspot number was 13 on January 30-31, butback to 0 on February 1. Average daily solar flux declinedmarginally from 70 to 69.1.

Predicted solar flux is 70 on February 2, 71 on February 3-8, 70 onFebruary 9-22, 69 on February 23 to March 4, 70 on March 5-18.

Predicted planetary A index is 5 on February 2-3, 10 and 8 onFebruary 4-5, 5 on February 6-8, then 8, 12 and 8 on February 9-11,5 on February 12-14, then 8, 12, 8, 10, 5, 8, 10 and 8 on February15-22, 5 on February 23 to March 2, 8 on March 3-4, 5 on March 5-7,then 8, 12 and 8 on March 8-10, 5 on March 11-13, then 8, 12, 8, 10and 5 on March 14-18.

Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period February 2-28, 2018from F.K. Janda, OK1HH.

"Geomagnetic field will be:Quiet on February 2, 5-8, 12-14, 20Mostly quiet on February 3, 9, 17, 23, 25-27Quiet to unsettled on February 11, 16, 18-19, 21-22Quiet to active on February 4, 10, 15, 24, 28Active to disturbed-not anticipated

"Remark:- Parenthesis means lower probability of activity enhancement.- With regard to ongoing changes, current forecasts are even less reliable."

Joe Flamini, W4BXJ of White Hall, Virginia wrote on January 29:

"So, I usually leave the 10-meter rig scanning in the shack, andit's usually quiet. So much so, in fact, that I forget it's there.Imagine my surprise to hear a couple of ZLs talking mobile-to-mobileat about 1500 GMT on January 27. I reached out and had a 45-secondQSO with them both before the link faded. That'll never happenagain!"

I checked back with Joe, and he told me it all happened so fast hedidn't log their call signs, but they were both mobile in theChristchurch area, and I estimate the short path distance at about8,800 miles.

Jeff Hartley, N8II of Shepherdstown, West Virginia wrote on February1:

"The solar indices have been remarkably very similar day to day inJanuary with K index seldom above 2, often 0 and SFI running 69-71.There are other factors that influence signal strength on 80 metersand even more so on 160 meters night to night.

"During the CQWW 160 Meter CW contest last weekend, I missed thebest hours to EU around EU sunrise the first night, but EU signalsdid seem down considerably from 2300Z-0240Z when I operated and thesecond night was even worse, about as poor as winter conditions everget to EU.

"There were quite loud west coast signals around sunrise Saturdaymorning with two strong callers from VE7 (British Columbia) and agood signal from KH7M in Hawaii.

"The second night ZC4A, UK Sovereign Base Areas on Cypress, wascalling CQ on my run frequency and I could not hear them at all, ona few USA calling ZC4A. Sunday night after the contest ended ZC4Awas 579!

"But, it was not until several nights later that I was able tocomplete a QSO on their last night of operation. I also worked themon 80 meters both modes, 40 meters both modes on January 26 (notvery loud when worked there) and on 30 meters CW where they werebarely readable at 0541Z.

"Signals on 80 meters were quite a bit louder than the other bands.40 meters seems to be improving to EU with some southern EU stationsstill having decent signals well into our evening.

"I have added quite a few band countries on the low bands lately(log started Jan 2017). And on the 26th on 80 meters CW I workedTG9ADM Guatemala, CP4BT Bolivia (quite rare), and less rare but moredistant RI50ANO on the South Shetland Islands off of Antarctica.

"I also have logged Alex, RI50ANO on 40 meters phone and CW. By farthe hardest to work DX recently was last night February 1 workingUN9L Kazakhstan on 80 meters CW. He was weak but readable and heardme right away, but it took several tries to get my call through.

"Over the last two months I have checked DX cluster 80 meters spotson him, only to hear nothing. The slightly increased daylight nearthe North Pole seems to be improving conditions as of about Jan 20.15 meters has been pretty close to dead even to Africa many days,but today C81G off the coast of Mozambique was worked on 15 CW andEA6VQ Balearic Islands was S9+ there from 1615-1650Z. Even 17 metersis closed or very marginal to EU many days due to the low solarflux.

"The big DXCC news is the addition of Kosovo (Z6) to the DXCC listeffective January 21st. The Z60A club station has a good signal on20 meters every day and they have worked the west coast there and on40 meters. I logged them easily on the 21st on 20 CW, not a verylarge pile up, and also later on 20 SSB and 80 meters CW. They seemto have a high noise level on the low bands."